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Daring Baker's Challenge: Pavlova
The June 2010 Daring Bakers? challenge was hosted by Dawn of Doable and Delicious. Dawn challenged the Daring Bakers? to make Chocolate Pavlovas and Chocolate Mascarpone Mousse. The challenge recipe is based on a recipe from the book Chocolate Epiphany by Francois Payard.
I will admit, I am not typically a huge fan of meringue. There's just something about the texture of it that bothers me. HOWEVER, I've discovered that Pavlova is an entirely different beast all together. I absolutely loved this dish. I think the creamy of the mouse paired with the crunchy of the meringue is what did it for me. All three of my kids tore into this dish with reckless abandon and Nick let out a tribal yell after finishing it exclaiming quite loudly that this was the best dessert I had ever made for him. Not only was it loved when eaten, but my four year old played quite an active role in helping me cook it. He helped make the meringue and loved helping decide what shapes to make them. Thank you, thank you Dawn for such a lovely and delicious challenge. We enjoyed making it almost as much as we enjoyed eating it! These pavlova had multiple pieces to them, so we'll take it one recipe at a time. First up, the meringue. Here's what you'll need:  3 Large Egg Whites 1/2 Cup plus 1 Tbsp of Sugar 1/4 Cup of Confectioners Sugar 1/3 Cup of Cocoa Powder Grab your egg whites, throw them into your mixing bowl and whip 'em up until soft peaks form. Next, you'll turn the mixer back on and 1 tablespoon at a time, you'll add your sugar to the egg whites. Do this until stiff peaks form. Here's what you should have at this point:  Now, with your sifter over the top of your bowl, sift in your cocoa and confectioners sugar. As you can see, I just put both ingredients in at the same time and sifted them together.  Fold in the sugar and cocoa by hand. It may take a minute to come together. Be patient, I promise it's worth it! Once it's mixed well, here's what you'll have:  I don't know about you, but that's looking delicious to me already! The next step is the fun one. Grab your piping bag, fill it up with the meringue and pipe out on a parchment lined baking sheet whatever shapes you desire! This is the part where Alex, my four year old really started to have fun. He held the piping bag for me while I put the meringue in and then told me which shapes I should pipe. I know you wish you had a sous chef like mine!  And here are a few of the shapes per Alex's request:  The next step is to cook 'em up in the oven at 200 degrees for between 2 and 3 hours. We cooked ours for about 2 and a half hours. You want them to be nice and dry when you pull them out. These can be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 days and still taste delicious. Here are the finished meringues, ready to be loaded up with mousse deliciousness.  Ok, next up is the mousse. We did two flavors of mousse, vanilla and chocolate. Here's what you'll need for the mousse:  1 1/2 Cups of Heavy Cream The Grated Zest from 1 Lemon 9 ounces of 72% Chocolate, Chopped 1 2/3 cups Mascarpone A Pinch of Nutmeg 2 Tbsp of Triple Sec or Grand Marnier Let me note before we get started, that I split this recipe down the middle and did half chocolate, half vanilla, so I only used half the chocolate called for above. Alright, let's get back to it. First up, add 1/2 cup of the heavy cream along with your lemon zest to your saucepan and warm it up on low heat.  Once it's warm, add in the chopped chocolate and whisk it until it just melts and then remove it from the heat. Let it cool completely. Here's my chopped chocolate (yes, I couldn't resist taking a picture of it):  Now we'll move on to the other part of the mousse. Place the mascarpone, the remaining cup of cream and the nutmeg into your mixer and whip on low for a minute until the mascarpone is loose.  Add in your triple sec and whip on medium speed until it holds soft peaks. Be sure not to over beat or your mascarpone will separate!  If you're doing half and half, at this point you'll split up your mixture, putting half in the refridge for later mousse, I mean use (ha ha, I couldn't resist) and the other half you'll use to make your chocolate mousse. Fold about a 1/4 of the mousse mixture into your cooled chocolate. Stir it to combine and then add in the rest of the mousse and stir it up. Here are your finished vanilla and chocolate mousses:   Pop them both in the fridge for a couple hours to cool down and firm up a bit. Alright, time for the final step. The mascarpone cream. Here's what you'll need to finish this pavlova off right. You'll first make up a creme anglaise.  1 Cup of Whole Milk 1 Cup of Heavy Cream 1 Vanilla Bean, Split or 1 tsp of Pure Vanilla Extract 6 Large Egg Yolks 6 Tbsp Sugar In your mixer whip up the egg yolks and sugar until the mixture turns a pale yellow. Here's my pale yellow mixture:  Now, grab a sauce pan and add to it your milk, cream, and vanilla over medium heat. Bring the mixture to a boil and then take it off the heat. Now comes that part that always makes me nervous to screw up. Take about a half a cup's worth of your hot liquid and add it into your egg mixture, whisking constantly so you don't end up with scrambled eggs. Continuing to whisk in the saucepan now, slowly add the egg mixture back in with the rest of hot liquid. Put the heat back on medium and stir constantly with a wooden spoon until the mixtures starts to stick to the back of the spoon. Be sure not to overcook or you'll end up with pudding! Here's the liquid sticking to the back of my spoon:  Strain the mixture through a fine holed sieve and then put the finished product into the refrigerator for at least 2 hours or overnight. In case you're wondering why you sieve the mixture, see exhibit a below:  Once your creme anglaise is chilled, pull it back out and add to it:  1/2 Cup Mascarpone 2 Tbsp of Kahlua 1/2 Cup of Heavy Cream To the creme anglaise, slowly mix in the mascarpone and kahlua. Set it aside. Now you'll want to mix up your heavy cream until soft peaks form. Add in your whipped cream to the creme mixture.  And voila! You have everything you need to make up your pavlova. Stick the mascarpone cream into the fridge to chill. When you're ready to serve up your pavlova, you'll place a meringue, then a scoop of mousse, then a drizzle of mascarpone cream, and finally some fresh chopped fruit. If that doesn't have your senses stimulated and your mouth watering I don't know what will. Wait, maybe I do. How about a picture of the final product to get you inspired.  Mousse out of the way, I need a pavlova!  Daring Cooks Challenge: Pate and Homemade Bread Daring Bakers Challenge: A Croquembouche Daring Cooks Challenge: Stacked Green Chile and Marinated Seafood Enchiladas  related searches : Daring
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